Herbert Hoover Again

History is cyclical. Whoever would have thought that we would replicate the end of Present Herbert Hoovers ill-fated single term? The American people faced the full onslaught of the Great Depression in the early 1930′s and Herbert the great engineer Hoover did virtually nothing. Hoover of course was a very different person from our current president, George W. Bush. While they shared the same rugged individualist philosophy, Hoover was said to be quite intelligent.

Then as now die hard conservatives supported Hoover (and now Bush) and applauded him when nothing was done. Then as now these very same people (and their political decendants) became politically irrelevant and the glorious unfettered, unregulated, anything-goes version of free enterprise disappeared for half a century. Then as now the nation waits for a new leader to show a way out of a fiscal mess. Then as now the majority of the American people could not care less that conservatives were furious at the new activist president. Once more Republicans will wait decades to come out of a political wilderness of their own making. Now, the GOP will again have ample opportunity to pine for a time when sufficient prosperity is restored to the land and peoples memories fade before the entire cycle is repeated.

2 Responses to Herbert Hoover Again

Let’s see eorge W Bush -Yale graduate and Harvard MBA. Herbert Hoover – Stanford. Your comment that George W Bush is not intelligent would appear unfair unless one is willing to say that Yale and Harvard accept unintelligent applicants, something I feel each would take you to task for maintaining is the case. Use of intelligence is a horse of a different color. Nontheless, your comment to some may come across as a cheap shot a la Marin chic rather than factual.

On paper Barack Obama is the pick of the litter between the three. Only time will tell what color his horse may be.

FDR remains one of my favorite presidents, but to characterize Hoover as a do-nothing indifferent president is unfair. After the stock market crash, he sped up public works projects, enacted loans to banks, farmers and other businesses. He lacked the political skills to convince the public that it wasn’t too little, too late.

His record as Commerce secretary was activist, not laissez faire. He organized efforts to feed a starving Europe after both world wars and relief efforts after the 1927 Mississippi flood.

FDR promised to cut government spending and balance the budget durning the 1932 election. Garner called Hoover’s policies “socialist.” There’s no clear evidence that FDR fully understood the concept of priming the pump. He cut spending in 1937-38 and sent the economy into a recession.

The country had never experienced a depression as deep as this one, so neither Hoover or FDR had a blueprint for recovery.